This year I decided to do a couple of experiments growing Carrots in containers. I did 2 different size containers, and I then planted one of the containers a month apart just to see where and how the time of year would be for planting. The idea was to determine if you can get 2 planting of carrots out of 1 season, especially in a zone 4 climate. So read on to see photo's of how this all turned out.
This is my first container I planted my carrot seed in. I chose the jumbo type carrots. I used a mix of sand, black earth and sheep manure as my mix of soil. I purposely chose not to fertilize my carrots, as this was also a component of my experiment. I did space them out when I planted so I did not have to weed out the growth. I planted these seeds on May 26, 2017. I harvested them this morning Aug 23, 2017. Understand please that we have had a really really rainy summer which may have affected the growth of these carrots. I had them in full sun location. This container is a 5 gallon, bakery icing bucket I purchased for $1 at our local bakery, and I just drilled holes in the bottom and placed rocks for drainage, and added sand to my soil mix to help with drainage.
Here is a picture of what I pulled out of this bucket of Carrots.
Now onto my other container (more like a planter) of carrots. I have 2 of them. This one is the first one I planted on May 26, 2017.
This planter I did weed out for spacing early on in mid June. I also decided not to fertilize this planter. I used the same soil mix as my 5 gallon bucket. The following is a picture of what I took out of this planter this morning.
So all in all the total harvest from my two containers this morning was this haul on my table.
Now mid July like 17th, I decided to plant another planter of carrots, just to experiment with the length of the growing season. My goal is to harvest this planter Thanksgiving weekend which is the 9th of October here in Canada, and serve them at my Thanksgiving dinner. So this picture is how far they have come in just over a month. Also the location of this planter is part shade, so this may hamper the growth of the plants. But we shall see.
In Canada we have such a short growing season, that I need to be able to test and experiment with growing to get the best or maximum ability to grow as much as I can with the space and land that I have. Hope you enjoyed my post and all you apartment dwellers out there, have a new motivation to get out there and grow some carrots too. It can be done. Your not going to fill your freezer but a meal or two would be a nice treat.
Happy Trails